A senior official at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) lost his post after denouncing famine in Gaza, a dismissal he links to diplomatic pressure from the United States and Israel.

Ben Davis, who served as director of FAO’s Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division (ESP), confirmed he was notified that his contract would not be renewed after 26 years with the multilateral agency. He said he was accused of organizing weekly silent moments of protest among staff over the famine situation in Gaza, referring to demonstrations held by some employees at the organization’s Rome headquarters.

The accusation against him was blunt: violating the organization’s impartiality rules by making the hunger and humanitarian crisis in Gaza visible to the world.

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“They accused me of organizing these moments of silence about the famine situation in Gaza,” Davis said, referring to the weekly silent protests held by some FAO employees at the agency’s Rome headquarters. The claim carried a grim irony, since the protests were themselves a form of quiet witness, not disruption.

Tensions had also escalated over a report on food availability and humanitarian impact that Davis co-authored. The document was initially published on FAO’s official website but later removed, which Davis said followed pressure from the U.S. and Israel. He said technical teams had been barred from referencing international humanitarian law in their coverage of the crisis in the Palestinian territory.

A Warning to Staff

An additional trigger for the disciplinary action reportedly involved the monitoring of foreign diplomats. Local media reports indicated that a representative from the Israeli embassy to FAO filmed staff’s silent protests inside the organization’s Rome offices, a development that preceded the decision to part ways with the longtime UN official.

Asked whether the director-general’s remarks were aimed directly at him, Davis confirmed that, noting that he had previously received warnings for what the organization considered overly politicized work.

FAO has faced mounting scrutiny over its handling of hunger-related reporting on Gaza throughout the conflict, as international organizations more broadly have come under pressure from various governments over their public statements on the war. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly warned that famine conditions in parts of Gaza have worsened despite a ceasefire agreement reached a year ago, with food and medical aid deliveries facing persistent delays and restrictions that aid organizations say have undermined relief efforts on the ground.

Davis’s case adds to a broader pattern of scrutiny facing UN agencies and their staff over public statements regarding the Gaza genocide, with employees at multiple organizations reportedly facing internal pressure over how they characterize the conflict and the humanitarian crisis it has caused.

FAO has not issued a public statement directly addressing Davis’s allegations or confirming the specific reasons behind the non-renewal of his contract. For now, the agency has removed a director, pulled a report from its website, and told its staff to stay out of politics while a famine unfolds on its watch.

The conflict in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 people and wounded over 173,000 since October 2023, according to updated figures. For Davis, that context made silence impossible.

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